like a shadow, i'm slowly carried away by you
by ReedHardWriter
Summary: the days are long and the nights are even longer for Reaper ANBU, Sakura Haruno, the last of team 7.enemies in the shadows and friends in the wings are now the co-conspirators of this woman who is now just so lethal:will she live or die?
1. Chapter 1

i do not own Naruto- i'll leave the important stuff to the experts, but have fun with this one and i hope you like it.please read and rate if you have a chance!thank you!

Like a shadow, I'm slowly carried away by you-

Prologue- Flower, Shadow of death

_She stalked her prey as quiet as the shadows on the walls, as stealth as the flowers on the wind, as cunning and nimble as a fox. Her lithe body going calmly and easily from shadow to shadow, only her goal on her mind as she scanned her surroundings with a wary eye. After what seemed like days she arrived upon her destination. The tall two inch thick steel door in front of her was the entry way to a world of abominations, a world where the living were the dead. Where the sun never shined and the moon never rose. The laboratory was created with the intentions to create a mass army based off of several specimens, living breathing life forms that were almost brain dead. It was sick and disgusting. But there was nothing that she could do, she knew. She had once been kidnapped by the very same people she was now going to steal from, for she was a mystery and they had wanted to know everything about her. And did they learn EVERYTHNG…_

_Getting into the laboratory however was not going to be easy; her chakra was so distinctive that if she used to even in the slightest before the end of the mission they would be on her within minutes. But since that was all she would ever really need she didn't even flinch as the sound of talking and the scrape of boots came to her ears before the handle on the door jiggled just enough to let her know that someone was coming and to attach her self to the ceiling above the opening door, just waiting for her chance. All she really had to do was get in and out without getting caught. The soft chuckling and the purring were slowly fading as the door opened to allow two people to exit the lab. The didn't even check their surroundings as they let the door swing closed on it's own, giving the ANBU above their heads to slip silently into the darkened room._

_The sight of twenty full sized tubes all with living occupants , almost was enough to stop her cold. Such a horrible sight was it that she knew she would be dreaming about it for the months to come._

_One tube in particular caught her attention however as she scanned the room for her objective, making her so speechless that the only words out of her frozen form as she stared in pity, sorrow, and guilt at the inhabitant of the tube. He was almost exactly like she remembered him. She shook her head at the fact that he still had unruly chicken butt hair, eyelashes so long they could be considered romantic if the eyes that were currently staring at her weren't so dead. The face mask on his face was all that allowed him to live as his body slowly shut down against the hands of time. His firm muscular chest moved up and down in a rhythmic manner. "…Sasuke…Uchiha…"_

_She shook her head violently as she heard someone outside the lab walk by. The one and only Reaper ANBU, Sakura Haruno quickly located the five scrolls of sealing that she had been sent to obtain and about twenty other scrolls and poisons and weapons and sealed them into the medium sized sealing scroll on her back as she made her decision and way to take her Ex-Teammate back to their home village where they both rightfully belonged._

_"Black ANBU One is hungery."A voice in her ear sounded softly, letting her know that the guards were changing shifts again and it was time to go._

_"Black ANBU Two will make onigiri and yakisoba for dinner…" she whispered softly back. It was the code for ok; I found something and need to find another way out. Go ahead without me._

_Just what I was craving" another monotonous voice said as sakura finished removing the cables and tubes and wires from sasuke's body and removing him from the tank. She saw a window behind him and opened it almost instantly before settling her burden upon her shoulders comfortably and quickly checking her surroundings as she conducted a jutsu that allowed her to transport her and her packages safely a hundred meters from the meeting spot. A whisper on the wind let her know that her teammates were waiting for her already. Another jump with the jutsu and all sakura had to do was nod at her companions as they all shot off into the night intent on getting back to Konoha before the sun set the next evening breaking only once to rest before starting again. Regardless of her burden however, sakura never failed to keep up and continuously sent chakra into him to help him along in the healing process as sakura kept up with her group, often times out running them. She had promised Naruto that she would bring his best friend back if she could, so no matter what, she would. _


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2. Is that a monster in the mirror?

After the return of the Elite Shinobi to the village, Sakura Haruno wanted nothing more than to fall into the deepest sleep in the century, not waking for a day and a half. Unfortunately, her master was going to be irritated with her if she missed her shift at the hospital and training all in one day. The mission had taken a week and a half to complete, the reconnaissance taking the longest of everything to complete, the locating of the scrolls easy, and the infiltration could vary in degree depending on how you looked at it.

Sasuke Uchiha was being taken care of by the hospital staff until Sakura had at least had a little time to rest after the stressful mission. He still hadn't woken up after they had arrived twenty-four hours after his release. Truthfully Sakura was just too damn angry and stubborn to make herself go back and treat him personally herself. The jutsu's that the medical staff were working with wasted too much chakra and took too long to treat the problem.

Sakura stood and put her jacket on before she even realized what she was doing. When her mind finally caught up to what she was doing she gave a surprised huff, "Well now, I guess my minds made up for me". she didn't really want to go, but Sakura didn't really see any other choice; if Sasuke was to live, then she would have to over look her beef with him and take care of him.

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The lights above the small clinic's bed were very bright for this time of year, Sasuke thought as he cracked his eyes for the first time in what felt like a long time. Why are my eyes so blurry?

The almost silent whish of the door opening and closing almost immediately afterward drew Sasuke's attention to the red haired woman, no, it was more like pink hair. Whatever color it was, Sasuke didn't know or care at the moment. He just wanted his sight fixed.

"Alright Mr. Uchiha, how are you feeling today? Any joint pains? Headache?" while the woman was talking she was taking his temperature and checking his heart monitors. He was starting to twitch with how the nurse's voice was as blasé as possible, she was quick and efficient, and she didn't seem to be hanging all over him like the staff at the sound base. So if this wasn't one of the wenches he was familiar with, then where in the world was he?

"Mr. Uchiha? Mr. Uchiha, are you listening to me? I need to know if there are any side effects of the procedures you undertook late last night. Can you understand me?" she started mumbling under her breath in what sounded like an irritated tone before calming herself. The look of concentration on her face made Sasuke Grunt in amusement.

The nurses head jerked up in surprise, her eyes narrowing on the small smirk on his lips, which told her that he had been purposely ignoring her. The little shit really had some nerve ignoring her after all of the work she had done last night! She had spent nearly ten hours working on him, wearing herself to the bone, even with her special jutsu Sakura had nearly died herself trying to save his useless life. She was so infuriated with the teme that she barely took notice of him lifting his hands to his eyes and feeling around until his heart monitor started beeping erratically, his eyes moving erratically from side to side as he started to panic.

"what the hell are you doing?! Leave those chords alone! they're the only things keeping you out of pain at this moment!" Sakura Haruno was shouting at the top of her lungs, fighting with mild success to keep her ornery patient from pulling the chords and cables out of his body. Finally with no patients left for Sasuke's antics Sakura took control of his body and mad him lye on the bed and be still so that she could reattach the IV's and chords that he had so brutally ripped out all the while lecturing him on the stupidity of his decisions and how he just had to such a pain in the ass, and couldn't he have just once not taken after Kakashi?

As the name of his former teacher rolled so casually off of his nurses tongue, Sasuke again questioned his location. "Where and I? and who are you to be so familiar with Kakashi?"

The question seemed, again, seemed to take the nurse off guard as she was now frozen. "Sasuke Uchiha, of the sharingan bloodline, age twenty-three, successor to the Uchiha fortune, and the sole traitor of the famous Team Kakashi."

"great, so you know who I am, but you didn't answer either of my questions." he growled quietly as she roughly grabbed his face in her hands and shined a light in his eyes. She whistled lightly and lowly as he felt her chakra push through his cranium and assessed the damage, finding the problem almost immediately. "close your eyes…I need to repair the optical nerve endings". Sasuke did as he was told, because truthfully, he just couldn't stand the thought of being mostly blind for however long.

Sasuke felt a sharp pain in his head, behind his eyes making him wince and grunt. He wasn't sure, but if he wasn't mistaken he had heard the small sound of a giggle from the woman in front of him.

"quit wincing, you wimp. You can open your eyes now. It seems that all of that time with Orochi-pervert has made you a huge wimp." Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at a woman whom he had been led to believe was dead. A woman he hadn't seen in almost ten years. "Sakura…"

The once warm eyes that were once trademarked to the Kunoichi were now cold and unfeeling things, they were the kind of eyes you would see a monster reflected upon. They were not the eyes of a healer, of an innocent little girl. Now that he knew who he was with, he was immediately suspicious as to why he was back in his home village. The last thing he had remembered was that he'd been on a mission when his own men had ambushed him, everything went black after that.

"Alright Sasuke, can you tell me what day it is?"

"it's the fourteenth or fifteenth of April, A.D. 148" Sakura gave a low whistle, and shook her head in pity. "Sasuke, it's the seventh of march, A.D. 144." Sasuke gave an irritated grumble which sounded a lot like denial.

"what am I doing here?" he demanded. Sakura's eyes held a note of sadness, as she spoke a line that would haunt him for the rest of his days. "and how did I get here?"

"Naruto missed you".

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There was a messenger waiting in the hallway as Sakura exited Sasuke's room, his message brief and succinct. The hokage had an emergency mission that only she could complete and that she was needed immediately.

With the messenger beside her, Sakura made her way to the hokage tower which was all the way across the village from the hospital. Her arrival was greeted with the irritated face of the hokage herself. Somehow, Sakura suspected that there was fear in her gaze as well.

"you're going on a mission, tonight at twilight, to the sound village to do what you do best, while Orochimaru is out of the base looking for our dear little boy. You will kill every living specimen in the tubes you found, and everyone who is on the base, even the weak ones Sakura. Leave no one alive. You will abduct the medic and bring him here for interrogation. That is all, you have three days' time. Do not be late, for there wont be any search party."

Sakura nodded and took the mission scroll from the hokage, before leaving out the door to her house which was right next to the forests' entry way. It was the farthest away from city limits, yet allowed her to live in semi-close proximity to both the hokage tower and the hospital.

Sakura went about packing her things continuesly checking the suns position and the scroll, debating on the supplies she would need for this particular mission.

Sakura wasn't exactly fond of killing, but for the safety of her country required she do things of this caliber, she could destroy herself when she got back, into the safety of her village. Naruto was still out with Kakashi on a mission to wave country and wouldn't be back till she was supposedly. But then again he was out with Kakashi, which meant that they probably wouldn't be home for a week longer than necessarily warranted for that type of mission. She grinned slightly, as she realized that, unintentionally Kakashi had become like a father figure to Naruto over the years.

Twilight struck as sakura locked up her house, and teleported to the village gates. She knew that this mission was one she wasn't supposed to be coming back from, but she also knew that she had caused this turn of events. She waved to the guards, and for a second, felt a deep sadness in her heart as she walked away from her beloved village.

End chapter


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3. Is there blood in creation?

An odd shaped figure swayed from side to side under it's own weight as it neared the gates of Konoha. Finally, the gates opened and the figure staggered towards the hospital. She was a week late she knew, but it couldn't be helped. The once vivacious cherry blossom pink hair was now blood red, and tangled. Her body was littered with shallow and deep cuts and bruises, her arms were wrapped up from the shoulders to the wrists. Her attire wasn't much better. Her ANBU mask was just barely staying on her face.

The doors to the hospital were just a few feet away, and Sakura Haruno was starting to feel the adrenaline in her body ebb away in her relief.

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She came around to the sound of and annoying beeping sound. She was uncertain, but for some reason she felt as if she were missing something.

"so, you're awake. How do you feel?" the hokage's voice; she must have made it.

I looked up at her "how was your mission?"

"Everything went as expected. Lord hokage. Every one of the experiments have been eliminated." I was sore and tired and now being scolded. What a way to wake up. Now onto the hard part.

"The mission was a fake. Orochimaru never left sound, he was expecting me." Tsunade turned a nice shade of red. "I did as you asked and killed all, I even fought and won against Orochimaru, I thought he was dead. I was wrong. He used the last of him life force to force my transformation. It lasted for three days. When the jutsu was done I lay dying, and tried to heal myself. I traveled until I made it to the valley of the end, and found refuge there during the time I needed to recover a bit to make it back to the village. I don't remember much after that except that every minute I was alive, I was fighting my transformation, so I sent my life force in little increments into myself until I was back into the village. I know how to reverse the jutsu, I just need a bit more time to replenish my chakra."

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Sasuke was listening at the door, his mouth in a tight line as he became curiously irritated that he'd come to see sakura only to find her in worse condition than himself at his return. He admitted to himself that not twenty-four hours after sakura's visit, he had felt as healthy as a horse. It disgusted him that the weakest link, the one team member that had to always be protected, was now stronger than her old protector. How was he supposed to feel as if what he did was the best avenue to gain strength if at every turn he was proven wrong?

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"After your defeat of the entire Akatsuki and now Sound, I'm sure you'll be wanting to have a vacation. Well either way, you'll have two weeks off of missions after you get out of the hospital. On another note, We're going to have to transport you to the lower city. I don't want to put innocents in danger".

"of course, lady hokage. I'll report to the lower city training center upon release." the calmness in sakura's disposition was expected by Tsunade, but Sasuke was having trouble with this new and improved sakura.

"I also want you to get detoxed again. Too much has happened for us to even think that we're safe without something leashing your powers." Tsunade left the room without another word. Her prodigy and former pupil stood from the bed that she was currently residing on and slowly and painfully dressed herself.

She knew without looking, that her former team-mate and old enemy was just outside the door, and that due to the snippet of conversation he had just heard was bound to be curious.

"you can come with me to the lower city as soon as I'm changed. everyone else in the village knows about me, you as well might need to know."

Sasuke was only mildly surprised by this time that with him shielding his chakra and using stealth that even the best hadn't been able to hear or sense, Sakura still knew he was there.

"so it wasn't a secret?" Sasuke took a deep breath, and lightly leaned with his back against the hallway wall and pushing his now relaxed hands into him pockets. "then what is it?"

"Sasuke, I think it's better if I just show you, then let you make your own assessments. If you have questions after, then I'll be happy to answer any you have." Sakura finished putting on her ANBU gear and cape before she went out into the hall to meet with Sasuke.

"well you certainly look a lot better." was her assessment for how well her healing had worked on him. To sakura's trained eyes, Sasuke was practically glowing with healing energy. Sakura smirked. "nice to know, after all this time that you still need me to save your butt Uchiha."

Sasuke stopped cold in his tracks and stared at sakura's retreating back, awed in spite of himself. The sakura he had once known would have never have teased him; this little thing only further proved to him that sakura had definitely changed.

Sasuke easily caught up with sakura, her silence comfortable rather than unnerving. They proceeded to the lower city training center. Instead of staying on the first floor though, sakura went to the elevator and pushed the down button, taking the two of them down to the medical and science labs under the training center and led them to an office/lab combination. The place looked oddly familiar to Sasuke only he couldn't quite place where he had seen it before.

"why don't you take a seat and relax while I see what's come in and take care of the reason we're here." as sakura turned away Sasuke could swear he saw a shadow fall slowly upon sakura's form as she moved to the lab portion of her office.

"knock, knock." a cheery voice said at the door. Sasuke looked at kakashi as the man made himself comfortable on sakura's nice Blood Red couch. He chuckled at her before launching into the latest mission he and the dobe had been sent on, and how Naruto had almost messed up the mission again.

"and I hear that you finally did away with Orochimaru; I wonder if he ever considered his own creations being his demise."

Sakura laughed joyfully. " somehow I highly doubt it. Even in the end, he was adamant that I would come be with him, join him and leave Konoha. - giggle- I don't think he ever thought that loyalty was stronger than jutsu. He tried to force me to his will." kakashi and sakura both busted up laughing as Sasuke was still trying to make sense of their conversations.

Kakashi had been monitoring Sasuke's reactions to the information that was freely flying and was amazed to see confusion not laced with anger. " Orochimaru was once a scientist and ninja for this lab, and Konoha. He illegally used human experiments for his research. One of his experiments was a life giving jutsu, where he created a living being out of nothing more than the basic elemental components each human is made up of. However, he also made animals and each had a connection to each other. Some were chimera hybrids, animal and human mixes, which shouldn't even be possible due to the difference in chromosomes each species possesses. Sakura was one of the hybrids Orochimaru had Created just before his expulsion from Konoha, her body was in an incubation tube just sitting there, and even though the order was to kill all specimens the fourth took one look at sakura and saved her rather than terminated her. No one knew then that sakura would grow faster than the average child. After leaving the tube, sakura's powers awakened, and she started seeing images in the fire, moving things with her mind, and talking with people telepathically.

She could control several types of elements and she can levitate."

Sasuke's eyebrows had risen to his hairline in disbelief; kakashi continued. "now, all of this is scientifically impossible, except for the fact that sakura's brain used more than 70% of it's capacity, while a normal human can only use about 10% at best. Now she uses only about 85% of her potential, when in peak form, and as she's grown and continues to grow, her capacity expands more."

Sasuke's jaw dropped, and he stared at kakashi, stupidly unawares of sakura stripping herself.

"kakashi, I'm gonna need another dose of the tranquilizer and more of the cleansing formula. The tube is filling up, and I'll be incapacitated until tomorrow. Do you have my usual music with you? I'm assuming you knew I was going to be here otherwise you wouldn't have-"

"hold it! This is impossible. If sakura was that incredibly powerful all those years, then why didn't she ever use her powers when they were needed. Al the bridge? In the forest? In the hills? in the valley of the dead?" Sasuke's voice had now gone from calm to panicky and high pitched.

Sakura and kakashi exchanged a look , "you didn't honestly think that pink hair was normal right? How many pink haired woman do you know?" walking towards the ladder sakura put a spare change of clothes and a towel on a stool and adjusted a nozzle before lowering her body into the warm water.

Sakura was fully submerged within seconds and her face was covered with a mask which allowed her to breathe easily underwater. She nodded to kakashi.

Grimly he preformed the Chidori, and placed his hand on the glass right in front of sakura's face. The water in the tube with sakura began to bubble and sakura herself was withering around in the water in pain, the water around her turning a horrid shade of black, with streaks of green. Three minutes later kakashi released the jutsu and just barely made it to the couch before he collapsed into a coma-like sleep.

Sasuke was left watching sakura pass out as the color in the water dissolved.


End file.
